The Hall of the Bulls is a large hall inside Lascaux Cave. Massive drawings of bulls, some 18 feet long, stampede along the walls.

​ABOUT LASCAUX CAVEIn 1940 a cave was discovered by teenage boys in southwest France. When they entered the cave, they were surrounded by paintings on the walls and ceilings.

The paintings are estimated to be 17,000 years old. Most of these prehistoric paintings are of large animals, such as horses, cattle and bison, and were painted with black, red and yellow mineral pigments.

The Stone Age people were able to see in the cave with the use of lamps made out of stone. Over 100 prehistoric lamps have been found in Lascaux Cave.

We recreated the look of these stone walls by creating texture and using tones that may have been found on its surface.

ABOUT CAVE OF THE HANDSLocated in Santa Cruz, Argentina, Cave of the Hands is known for the hundreds of red, white, purple, yellow and brown hands stenciled on the walls. It’s believed that the hand art dates back to around 5,000 B.C. The prehistoric people used mineral pigments to make their prints on the cave walls.

A few years ago I visited the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History in DC and got to see a replica of a cave painting upclose! Today the kiddos and I had loads of fun creating our own handprints and imagining what it would’ve been like to live loooooooong ago, using mineral pigments to print our hands on the walls of our cave homes!

ABOUT GREEK POTTERY GREEK POTTERY was created for everyday use, even though they may seem too beautiful to use. Artists shaped their SYMMETRICAL pottery on a potter’s wheel and divided the surfaces into HORIZONTAL bands.

The clay the artist used was readily available throughout Greece. The preferred clay was called ATTIC CLAY which had a high iron content and gave the vase an orange-red color.The images told the story of everyday life, with images often being repeated around the vase.

​Some patterns or objects were solid while others were outlined. Every band was filled with GEOMETRIC shapes—circles, arcs, triangles, zigzags, wavy lines and herringbone patterns.

They'll need a few days to dry and harden so we will paint by the end of the week!

The Trojan war is a war that took place 2500 years ago between the Spartans and Trojans. The story is that the king of Sparta in Greece heard that his beautiful wife Helen had been kidnapped by the prince of Troy, which was a city in modern-day Turkey. Soon, Greek ships set sail for Troy to get the queen back. After years of fighting, the Spartans defeated the Trojans.

Today we looked at pictures of what these Trojan soldiers wore and then they created these striking 3D helmets.

ABOUT THE GLADIATORS IN ANCIENT ROMEThe Ancient Romans built the Colosseum in order to provide a place for entertainment for the citizens of Rome. Sadly, their favorite entertainment was gladiator fights, which involved slaves, trained to be gladiators, who were forced to fight each other, often to death. If a gladiator won enough fights, he might win his freedom, though very few gladiators ever did. They were all sufficiently appalled by this and they seemed very surprised that people would think of selling other people. Aah the wisdom of children. ❤️

We spent a long time today working on sketching the human form and getting the proportions of the body just right. Tomorrow they’ll clean up their drawings and finish them off with paint and add the Colosseum in the background.

The campers loved creating a portrait of an ancient Olympian. Winners of events in the ancient Olympics did not receive a medal, but instead got a special crown made of olive leaves from a sacred olive tree near Zeus’ temple in Olympia.

ABOUT THE ANCIENT OLYMPICSThe Ancient Greeks were the creators of the first Olympics. The modern Olympics that you watch on TV every two years are a result of what the Ancient Greeks started in 776 B.C., though the games looked very different 2800 years ago. In the ancient Olympics, only men could compete in the competitions. Women were not even allowed to watch, though maybe that was okay because most Olympic athletes competed without clothes!

Ancient Olympic Facts:•The first Olympics were held in the town of Olympia, Greece.•The Olympics honored the god Zeus.​•During the Olympics, the Greek people stopped all war and fighting so that everyone could compete at thegames in peace.​

ABOUT THE SPARTANSAncient Greece was made up of a collection of small states which often did not get along. Sparta was one of these states and was located in southern Greece. The Spartans were known for their strong army. Spartan soldiers trained from the age of 7 and served in the army until they were 59. I asked if they could imagine joining the army when they turn 7? 😳 Of course not!

We used a plate as the base for our shield and it was painted in several layers. They even rubbed a layer of brown paint on it to create that dull metal look.

ABOUT THE LOTUS FLOWERThe lotus flower is a flower that the ancient Egyptians came to respect and value in their culture. It had positive associations such as protection, healing and, most importantly, creation and rebirth. Lotus flowers are depicted in ancient Egyptian art near the noses of pharaohs. Pharaohs would take in their special scent, which they believed would lead to protection or restoration.

They used loads of terrific art techniques here as well, from oil pastel resist to salt crystallization in the watercolours!